all about Madonna

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
16 (13) Madonna - Get Together
34 (38) Madonna - Sorry
50 (43) Madonna - Hung Up

Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
-- (50) Madonna - Get Together

Dance Radio Airplay :
14 (12) Madonna - Get Together

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
05 (05) Madonna - Get Together
09 (08) Madonna - Sorry
11 (10) Madonna - Hung Up

Top Music Video :
31 (29) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos
31 (29) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Madonna will be performing at a private party for Lousi Vuitton next month - and the pop superstar is also reportedly being courted as the next face of the fashion house. The Material Girl will play at a bash in Prague, Czech Republic on 8 September (06). The day before she is playing in the city as part of her Confessions tour. Insiders report the 48-year-old is "very interested" in modelling for Louis Vuitton.
source : contact music

The organizer of Madonna's upcoming Moscow concert said holders of the 36,000 tickets already sold could begin exchanging them Monday.
Vladimir Kiselyov told the newspaper Trud in an interview published Wednesday that the concert would not be canceled as a result of weeks of confusion that ended Tuesday, when the date and venue of the concert were changed.
Kiselyov is general director of a state-owned management company called Kreml, or Kremlin, which is part of the Presidential Property Department. Kreml has emerged in recent days as the lead organizer of Madonna's concert, now scheduled for Sept. 12 at Luzhniki stadium.
Kiselyov told Trud he had just returned from London, where he met with Madonna's representatives and discussed security for the concert. Tickets will be verified at four checkpoints at the stadium, and concertgoers will be given special bracelets.
source : the moscow times

2 Pictures - Madonna leaving the Crillon hotel in Paris (August 29 2006) - are added to the gallery.

14 Pictures - Madonna leaving the Crillon hotel in Paris (August 30 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna is to auction off her designer stage outfits to raise money for an AIDS charity.
The 'Hung Up' singer's flamboyant costumes - designed by Jean Paul Gaultier for her 'Confessions' tour - will reportedly be sold off to raise money to help AIDS victims in Africa.
A source told Britain's Closer magazine: "She has pledged money to AIDS charities since the beginning of her career. She's thinking about doing it through eBay, or maybe an auction house in London."
The singer has already pledged over L2 million to help orphans in Malawi.
She is reportedly also planning to visit the impoverished country later this year.
source : monstersandcritics.com

Czech police arrested on Tuesday four members of an organised group who allegedly counterfeited tickets for two concerts of U.S. pop signer Madonna in Prague, Prague police spokeswoman Iva Knolova said.
According to original information, the men have forged more than 300 tickets. Since the suspects are members of the "hard core" of fans of one of the Czech soccer clubs, a riot police unit dealt with them, Knolova said.
During home searches police seized forged tickets, equipment for their production, pistols in illegal possession and the money originated from criminal activity.
"It is about 500,000 crowns," Knolova said.
The police are questioning the four suspects and they could be charged in the next hours with fraud, illegal arms possession and harming the rights of other people.
According to the police, the group activities were well organised. They produced and sold the tickets for several months.
The police detained the men on August 29 at various places in Prague.
Madonna was originally to give only one concert in Prague on September within her Confessions Tour as her first ever concert in the Czech Republic.
Madonna's fans bought out the tickets for the first concert in less than two hours. That is why the signer decided at the very last moment to add another performance a day later.
Tickets for Madonna's second concert, to be held on September 7, were also sold out at Sazka company's terminals in a record short time of over one hour and half.
source : ceske noviny

6 Pictures - Madonna going to the Crillon hotel after her concert at Bercy stadium (Paris, August 28 2006) - are added to the gallery.

A total of 52,000 tickets to Madonna's concert in Moscow will be sold, Kremlin state owned company director Vladimir Kiselyov told journalists on Tuesday.
"Now we have a more spacious venue - the Luzhniki Central Sports Arena. More tickets will be issued and added to the previously sold 36,000, bringing the overall number of tickets to 52,000," he said.
source : interfax

94 Pictures - Madonna performs in Paris during "Confessions" World Tour (Bercy Stadium, Paris, August 28 2006) - are added to the gallery.

11 Pictures - Madonna leaving Crillon hotel in Paris (August 28 2006) - are added to the gallery.

5 Pictures - Madonna going to the Crillon hotel after her concert at Bercy stadium (Paris, August 27 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna's concert will be held at a stadium in southwest Moscow on September 12, the organizers said Monday, correcting earlier reports that the much-awaited event would take place September 11.
Initially Madonna's concert was to take place at the Vorobyovy Gory hill overlooking the capital in front of Moscow State University also in the southwest of the capital. But authorities said the venue had to be changed for security reasons.
The decision to hold the concert in Luzhniki was made by NCA, an official partner to LIFE NATION, the promoter of the American pop diva's "Confessions on a Dance Floor" tour, and the Moscow authorities, NCA President Mikhail Shurygin said.
Moscow's police chief, Vladimir Pronin, had said earlier Monday that Tushino airfield in the northwest of the capital was the only possible venue for concerts with as many as over 200,000 ticket holders.
Pronin said 250,000 people were expected at the concert but Vorobyovy Gory and Luzhniki could only accommodate around 40,000 and 70,000 spectators respectively. About 100,000 tickets have been sold already, he said.
Considering Luzhniki's limited capacity, Madonna may have to perform there twice, he said.
source : ria

27 Pictures - Madonna performs in Paris during "Confessions" World Tour (Bercy Stadium, Paris, August 27 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna's concert is scheduled to take place at the Luzhniki sports center, First Deputy Moscow Mayor Lyudmila Shvetsova told Interfax on Monday.
"We are preparing a draft order on assisting holding Madonna's performance at the Luzhniki," she said.
"The organizers have already said that the place suits them well," the first deputy Moscow mayor said, adding that "security for the concert-goers and other organizational issues can be guaranteed" at the Luzhniki.
It was reported earlier that organizers planned to hold the September 11 concert at Vorobyovy Gory.
source : interfax

35 Pictures - Madonna leaving the Crillon hotel and going to Bercy stadium (Paris, August 27 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Despite the information that Madonna wants to meet Russian president in person, the meeting between American pop star and Vladimir Putin will not be held, apparently. Instead the dinner with the president, an extensive cultural program was offered to Madonna. The program includes visiting one of Moscow's fashionable clubs or restaurants.
According to British newspaper The Sun, Madonna plans to meet with Russian president the next day after her concert in Moscow scheduled for September 11. The newspaper claims that both daughters of Vladimir Putin, Masha and Katya, will attend the dinner together with their father, because they persuaded him to meet their favorite singer. "Such possibility has been considered for quite a long time," a source close to Madonna told the newspaper. "She wanted to meet with President Putin, who at first doubted the necessity of this meeting. However, knowing that his daughters are Madonna's fans, Putin finally agreed." "It is unlikely that Madonna will be discussing her disputable body movements on the stage. She will rather talk about peace in the world," said Madonna's friend quoted by The Sun. Perhaps, she wanted to tell Vladimir Putin about the magic qualities of a liquid discovered in one of Russia's lakes. Madonna, being the follower of Hebrew mystic cult of cabbala, firmly believes this liquid can accumulate people's positive energy which can neutralize nuclear waste. Madonna even wrote to British government and Britain's nuclear energy committee about the magic liquid. However, British nuclear scientists were not so enthusiastic about the idea, and said it contradicts the laws of nature.
Meanwhile, President Putin's administration officials absolutely denied the possibility of Putin's meeting with Madonna, saying The Sun's information is only speculations. "Vladimir Putin hasn't been planning any meetings or contacts with Madonna," said Dmitry Peskov, first deputy spokesman of Russian president. Moreover, a Kremlin source said the president will not even attend Madonna's concert, which means his preferences differ from those of his daughters.
Spokesman of Russian organizers of Madonna's concert Anton Atrashkin told Kommersant that he knows nothing of such plans of the pop diva, and that all such declarations are simply conjectures. "Madonna never told her tour organizers of her wish to meet with Vladimir Putin," said Atrashkin. Yet, he admitted that the singer will have an extensive cultural program. Beside the usual sight-seeing of Moscow's architectural and historic monuments, Madonna will see Moscow's night-life. She plans to visit one of fashionable night clubs. "A list of most interesting clubs and restaurants in Moscow was compiled for Madonna. She will make her own choice out of this list," said Atrashkin. He did not name those clubs and restaurants, as well as the hotel where the pop star will be staying, due to security reasons. According to The Sun, Russian mafia threatened to kidnap Madonna (Kommersant, August 20).
While Madonna is left to make her choice, Moscow clubs' promoters are trying to influence it. Opera club promoter Andreas Lobjanidze said his colleagues are even ready to pay for Madonna's visit to their restaurants and clubs. "Everyone from Dyagilev to Metelitsa compete for Madonna's visit. I've heard the stakes reach half a million. Opera club is ready to pay $300,000, although none of us believes anymore that Madonna will really come."
Atrashkin noted that Madonna did not set any unusual or shocking requirements. As to the rumors about Madonna's second concert in Moscow, Atrashkin firmly denied it as absolutely unreal. "Such possibility was discussed. Yet, Madonna's representatives confirmed only one concert," said Atrashkin.
source : kommersant

Albums :

37 (28) Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor

14 Pictures - Madonna performs in Paris during "Confessions" World Tour (Bercy Stadium, Paris, August 27 2006) - are added to the gallery.

5 Pictures - Madonna leaving the Crillon hotel in Paris (August 26 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna's Moscow show will take place at the Luzhniki stadium, a source in the Russian authorities close to organizers of the concert told Interfax on Friday.
The concert had been scheduled to be held at Vorobyovy Gory, "but law enforcement bodies objected to the venue, saying it would be impossible to guarantee security there," the source said.
The Tushino airfield was also mooted as a possible venue, he said.
"Luzhniki stadium is a suitable venue, there everything is in place to ensure the security of visitors and musicians," the source said.
"The venue for the concert will be announced early next week," he said.
source : interfax

23 Pictures - Madonna with Lourdes going to / leaving pilates class in London (August 08 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Anyone searching for the elixir of life should go straight to the queen of pop Madonna, for a new poll has found that nearly 60 percent of people believe she looks much younger than she really is.
According to Contactmusic, 56 percent of the readers of In Touch magazine thought that the singer, who recently celebrated her 48th birthday this month, was only in her early 40s.
37 percent of them also thought that the 'Hung Up' singer, who is currently on the German leg of her 'Confessions' world tour, was in her late 30s, with only 7 percent of those taking part in the poll voting that the singer looks her age.
source : ani

Police have detained activists of the "Georgiyevtsy!" Orthodox youth organization for distributing pamphlets near the Marshal Zhukov monument in downtown Moscow that call for boycotting Madonna's September 11 concert in the Russian capital.
Ten people or so, all of them aged 15-16 years, were detained, an Interfax correspondent reports.
The young people, dressed in yellow T-shirts with "Madonna, Go Home!" written on them, told journalists and passers-by that "the concert insults the religious feelings of Orthodox believers."
The September 11 concert "is blasphemous because it is due to take place on the day when the whole world pays homage to the victims of the terrorist attack in New York," they said.
The concert comes "as an ideal excuse for certain forces to destabilize the situation in the city on that day," the organization's co-chairman Stepan Medvedko said.
The organization's activists are working in several Moscow districts and hope to distribute up to 10,000 pamphlets, Medvedko said.

source : Interfax / Reuters

Johan Renck was having a crazy enough day as it was, trying to shoot an H&M commercial with Kate Moss just hours after a photograph of the model cutting up lines of cocaine hit the tabloids' front pages.
Fighting off paparazzi that were climbing a fence for a shot of the scandalized beauty, Renck was at the end of his rope when out of the blue he got a call on his cell from Madonna. The two had collaborated in 1999 on her geisha-inspired clip for "Nothing Really Matters," and now, six years later, the singer wanted to work with the Swedish director again now. "She was desperate," Renck said.
Madonna had planned to have photographer/filmmaker David LaChapelle direct her video for "Hung Up," the first single from Confessions on a Dance Floor, and the pair had worked out a concept that involved incorporating all types of dance techniques from around the world including the krumping style featured in LaChapelle's documentary "Rize." But then the two had a falling out and couldn't come to terms creatively and Madonna was locked into a deadline to "get this thing going, immediately," Renck recalled. She wanted to know if Renck had heard the song, and since he hadn't, "she told me to be in the parking lot by the stage in 45 minutes." Madonna sent a record-label rep over in a truck to play the song for him, then called back to ask again, would he do this?
"I was like, 'Sure,' and she said, 'OK, I have a grain of an idea for this, can I e-mail you the idea?' " Renck said. "And then she asked if I could go to Los Angeles to meet with the stylist and choreographer. Mind you, I'm still in the middle of chaos with Miss Moss, so I said, 'Well, I'm kind of shooting today.' 'Good, you can go tomorrow.' It was all very abrupt." (Ironically, H&M dropped Moss soon after and later picked up Madonna for an ad campaign).
"I kind of liked that we didn't have time to over-think this and be too clever," Renck said. "I like being out on a limb and not know what we're doing and why. Just deal with it, the mayhem, you know?"
Thrown into the middle of Madonna's whirlwind, Renck had to hit the ground running, just like many of the dancers cast for the clip. Madonna wanted to use a few performers from her tour, such as Daniel "Cloud" Campos, Miss Prissy from LaChapelle's "Rize" crew and traceur Sebastien Foucan, a practitioner of parkour, a philosophical French sport that involves moving via uninterrupted motion, whether over, under, through or around objects. "It's not about the music, but the bodily expression," Renck said. "We wanted to show the whole spectrum, be it krumping, breakdancing, jazz or disco."While they couldn't exactly shoot all over the world, Madonna wanted the video to have an "omnipresent feel," with the middle section of the song generating a sense of congregation. Renck suggested that they have the boombox be the tool to unite everything, "since that's the way street dancing started." So while some setups are meant to take place in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Tokyo, the actual shoots only took place in London and L.A. A London suburb stood in for the Parisian suburb most known for parkour, a restaurant in London's Chinatown stood in for Shanghai and Compton stood in for the Bronx. "If Mohammed can't go to the mountain, the mountain has to go to Mohammed," Renck joked.
All of the dancers' scenes were shot in early October 2005 in half a day, for a total of six days of shooting, while Madonna's solo dance number inspired by the John Travolta film trifecta of "Saturday Night Fever," "Grease" and "Perfect" only took three hours to shoot (Madonna has said the video is "really a tribute to dance and John Travolta").
Considering that the singer was still recovering from breaking her ribs, collarbone and hand just weeks earlier in a horseback-riding accident, "she was such a trooper," Renck said. "She just fell off a horse!" When Renck and choreographer Jamie King would say they couldn't even tell she was injured, Madonna would tease them, " 'If you were a real dance choreographer, you could tell I can't lift my left arm higher than this' and it was like, what, a 20-centimeter difference?" Renck said. "But when she said it 'hurts like f---,' she'd take a break and sit down for two minutes. 'I have broken ribs, remember that!' I just can't imagine dancing like that. Talk about priorities."
Madonna's priorities extended to sitting in on the edit so she could help shape the finished product. "She was my edit supervisor," Renck laughed. "She'd leave me alone for a few days, and then come back and say, 'Let's do this and this, get rid of that, do that.' And then she'd be there all day, more or less. I think she likes the process, how it starts to unravel in front of your eyes."
Since Madonna had done more videos in her career than Renck, he welcomed her input. "It's not, 'My nose doesn't look good,' " he insisted. "She wants her dance to look the way she wants it. She wanted it to be a little more raw, like a documentary feel, which was fine, because it let me portray her realistically, rather than how she's usually polished and stylized."
But while Madonna certainly could have made more demands her right, her video, Renck said she was willing to bend a bit. "She says, 'I'm not a director, that's why I have a director,' and she gives you a lot of slack," he recalled. Not that she lets anything go by uncommented. "She's a very good client, but she's tough. I can't say it's not tough. But she's good." Her toughness paid off to the tune of five MTV Video Music Award nominations, including Video of the Year (see "Shakira, Chili Peppers, Madonna, Panic! Lead List Of Nominees For MTV Video Music Awards").
Making "Hung Up" was such a "massive undertaking," Renck said, that he feels like it was a little hard for all involved to come back to reality once it was finished. "It's like you form this little family that's flourished and prospered for the month, and then you chop it down like a tree," he observed. "You come out with a sense of yearning and longing, like, 'Can we just do that again? Please?' "
source : mtv

Some Prague officials are "outraged" that the city's most celebrated bridge is scheduled for a one-day shutdown next month for a private party featuring pop star Madonna, a newspaper said Friday. The American diva is scheduled to belt out a few songs for a fashion-company party on the cobblestone deck of the 14th-century Charles Bridge, a gothic monument in the heart of the city, sources told the Pravo newspaper.
The September 8 gala for French fashion designer Louis Vuitton would close the pedestrians-only bridge after Madonna's scheduled concerts at a Prague arena on the previous two nights.
The concerts will be the first in the Czech Republic for Madonna, who's carved an entertainment niche by raising eyebrows and stretching the limits of good taste.
This month in Rome, the singer's on-stage "crucifixion" stunt drew widespread criticism.
Pravo said some city council members were "outraged that one of the largest Czech monuments will be rented all day long."
The stone bridge is one of the city's favourite tourist attractions and frequently crossed by visiting dignitaries.
source : rawstory.com

Madonna makes her first concert in Denmark a memorable one for fans and officials alike in the city of Horsens.
Pop icon Madonna brought her European tour to Denmark Thursday night, wowing 85,000 fans who converged on the town of Horsens in Jutland. It was the country's largest concert ever.
The Material Girl has been on the pop scene for 23 years, but last night's concert was her first visit to Denmark and the only Scandinavian stop on her current Confessions tour.
Despite starting the show behind schedule, Madonna took the stage by storm, emerging from a giant disco ball to the sounds of well known tunes, asking the crowd if they were 'ready to ride with her'.
When the ride finally stopped two hours later, fans said it was worth waiting hours in line to see.
Reviewers, however, were less ebullient in their praise for the 48-year-old, whose 350 million albums sold make her the most successful female singer ever. They had high praise for the shows opening and closing, but said it lost its energy in the middle.
Horsens has made a name for itself by attracting some of rock music's best known names. Despite the so-so reviews of the music, yesterday's concert topped them all financially.
'We've got 85,000 guests in our city and we expect businesses to take in an extra DKK 30 million (EUR 4 million) today,' said Horsens executive director Henning Norbak. 'Last year we had 23,000 guests for R.E.M, and we took in DKK 5.2 million (EUR 700,000).'
source : denmark.dk

Authorities in Moscow have refused to allow the Madonna concert to be held on a hill overlooking the capital in front of Moscow State University, an official said Friday.
The pop diva is expected in Moscow September 11 as part of her controversial 'Confessions on a Dance Floor' tour. Moscow authorities said Tuesday the venue for the concert could be changed for security reasons.
"No permission has been given for Madonna's show on Vorobyovy Gory hill," Alexei Laushkin of the western Moscow administration said, adding the concert might be held in the north of the city.
Nikolai Kulikov, in charge of security issues in the Moscow government, said Tuesday that security concerns, including a blast at a market place Monday, prompted city authorities to consider an alternate site for the American pop icon's upcoming concert.
He said the large number of expected fans - up to 250,000 - could mean the concert would have to be moved from Vorobyovy Gory to the more spacious Tushino airfield in northwest Moscow.
However, Kulikov assured ticket holders that the concert would not be canceled under any circumstances, even in light of the bomb attack at a Moscow market that claimed 11 lives.
"Life must go on despite these blasts," he said, adding that security would be tighter.
source : ria

Tabloid Blesk reports that pop star Madonna, who already has two concerts scheduled in Prague on September 6-7, will also sing for guests at the Louis Vuitton celebration in Prague on September 8.
According to the paper, Madonna will sing two or three songs at the event held on the occasion of Vuitton´s birthday on the historic Charles Bridge in the city´s centre.
As a result, she is to stay in Prague until September 9, Blesk writes.
As tickets for her Prague concert sold out immediately, Madonna decided to stage another one the next day. The tickets for the second concert were sold out in a record short time, too.
source : prague monitor

6 Pictures - Madonna performs in Horsens during "Confessions" World Tour (F. Horsens Outdoor, Horsens, August 24 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
13 (13) Madonna - Get Together
38 (40) Madonna - Sorry
43 (44) Madonna - Hung Up

Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
50 (49) Madonna - Get Together

Dance Radio Airplay :
12 (11) Madonna - Get Together

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
05 (03) Madonna - Get Together
08 (06) Madonna - Sorry
10 (07) Madonna - Hung Up

Top Music Video :
29 (22) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos
29 (22) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Click on image bellow to see the chart :

18 Pictures - Madonna and Guy leaving Madonna's Birthday Party in London (August 16 2006) - are added to the gallery.

16 Pictures - Madonna performs in Hannover during "Confessions" World Tour (Niedersachsen, Hannover, August 22 2006) - are added to the gallery.
Update : 12 more added

Madonna has lined up a secret date with Russian leader Vladimir Putin when she plays Moscow.
The singer will have dinner with the president and his daughters, Maria and Katya.
The Queen of Pop hits the Russian capital with her Confessions Tour on September 11. Her meeting with Putin and his girls will be the following day.
A source close to Madonna said: "This has been on the cards for a while. She really wanted to meet him but he wasn't sure initially. But his daughters are big fans so he eventually agreed.
"No doubt Madonna will want to talk about world peace rather than her raunchy dance moves on stage."
Let's hope Putin don't preach . . .
source : the sun

Organizers of the Madonna Moscow concert are holding consultations about the show terms with the city government.
The show is scheduled for September 11 on Vorobyovy Hills.
"The annulment of this concert is out of the question," PR manager of Madonna's Russian tour Anton Atrashkin told.
Head of the Moscow government's department for relations with law enforcement agencies Nikolai Kulikov said earlier that the show organizers had been offered to hold the concert in Tushino.
He explained the proposal with a large number of viewers and security reasons. "It will be simpler to ensure security of the concert there," Kulikov said.
source : itar tass

Scissor Sisters star Ana Matronic has accused Madonna of starting a sickening trend in stick-thin, model-type pop stars strutting their stuff in bikinis and barely-there outfits. Catty Matronic urges her young pop peers to spend their money on singing lessons and an education and not the latest fashions as they try to copy Material Girl Madonna. She says, "I think Madonna had a lot to do with this. On the one hand, she made it OK for women to be sexual and still be taken seriously. "However, it's now expected for every woman to be pictured in a bathing suit or her underwear. "I'm so tired of seeing skinny-assed hot whore b**ches in their underwear. Get your f**king clothes on, take some classes, read some books, and learn something."
source : contact music

This week Madonna is featured in AOL Music's 'Famous Concert Quotes' gallery...it spotlights her saying:
"Don't make me stop this car. Come on, you lazy f*ckers! SING!" in Sunnydale, CA. link
Thanks to Jessie

Madonna may be forced to change the venue of her Moscow concert because of fears students at the nearby university could fall from the windows while craning to watch her, officials said on Tuesday.
"The question of where the Madonna concert will eventually take place has still not been resolved," said the head of Moscow's security department, Nikolai Koulikov.
"More than 250,000 tickets have already been sold and we fear the students of the (Lomossov) university ... could fall from the windows," he told a press conference.
Koulikov said the authorities were considering moving the venue from a hill overlooking the capital and facing the university, to the more spacious Tushino airfield in northwest Moscow.
But he said they had no plans to cancel the concert despite a bomb attack on a Moscow market that killed 10 people on Monday.
"Life must go on despite these explosions," he said.
The US pop star will make her first appearance in Moscow on September 11 as part of her "Confessions" world tour.
Organisers say she plans to bring 200 tonnes of equipment on 57 lorries.
Tickets for the performance sold out at the beginning of August, despite an appeal by the Russian Orthodox Church for a boycott on the grounds that the singer "exploits Christian symbols" in the concert.
Madonna, 47, has offended religious authorities in several European countries with her infamous crucifixion routine, in which she sings wearing a crown of thorns and hitched to a wooden cross. - AFP/fa
source : channel news asia

7 Pictures - Madonna performs in Hannover during "Confessions" World Tour (Niedersachsen, Hannover, August 22 2006) - are added to the gallery.

British singer Robbie Williams is afraid he will remain single forever, because no girl can ever live up to his ideal woman - Madonna. The Feel singer admits he is jealous of the Material Girl's film-maker husband Guy Ritchie. He says, "I've been in bed with somebody that I'm having a very romantic mini-break with, a couple of weeks relationship with, and then I watch the late shows in America and there will be a girl on there I'd rather be with. "Madonna is the ultimate in our day and age of the grass being greenest. Guy Ritchie is a lucky man. "I do happen to fancy Madonna. She rehearses her a**e off. Goes to the gym every day. She does all that stuff to get it spot-on and then she delivers. I'm in awe of her drive."
source : contact music

The venue for Madonna's Sept. 11 concert in Moscow has not been finalized, Nikolai Kulikov, City Hall's chief security liaison, told Interfax on Tuesday.
Concert organizers have announced the show will take place on Vorobyovy Gory, but Kulikov said the city had security concerns about the site.
He added that the city could not meet organizers' demands to guarantee that students at nearby Moscow State University would not open their windows and enjoy the show for free.
Kulikov said the city had proposed holding the concert in Tushino, an outlying district of northwest Moscow.
Madonna's local PR manager, Anton Atrashkin, told Interfax on Tuesday that he had heard nothing about a possible change of venue. On Monday, the show's organizers said they had requested that Madonna give a second show in Moscow.
source : the moscow times

The Russian organizers of Madonna's Moscow concert have sent a request for a second show to the pop star's management team, Interfax reported Monday.
"The ball is in their court now," said Anton Atrashkin, PR manager for Madonna's Russian show, adding that the request had no deadline.
Madonna will bring her "Confessions" tour to Moscow's Vorobyovy Gory on Sept. 11. Tickets for the show sold out in just four days.
Atrashkin also responded to reports of a threat to Madonna's safety in Moscow that appeared in the Western media.
The Sun, a British tabloid, reported Saturday that Russian gangsters had threatened to kidnap Madonna and her two children, son Rocco and daughter Lourdes.
Atrashkin said that, while he could not provide details of the security measures that would be taken to protect Madonna in Moscow, the gangsters mentioned in the Sun's article would have "no chance of causing the singer any trouble."
Also on Monday, German prosecutors said they had decided against opening an investigation into Madonna after the pop diva performed a controversial mock crucifixion scene at a weekend concert, The Associated Press reported.
A crowd of about 45,000 packed D?sseldorf's LTU Arena Sunday night to watch the first of two German concerts on the "Confessions" tour. The crucifixion scene recently drew criticism in Italy, and D?sseldorf prosecutors said last week that they would monitor reports about the concert. They did not, however, send observers.
Madonna was scheduled to perform in Hannover, Germany on Tuesday.
source : the moscow times

28 Pictures - Madonna performs in Duesseldorf during "Confessions" World Tour (LTU Arena, Duesseldorf, August 20 2006) - are added to the gallery.
Update : 21 more pictures added

Madonna has gone ahead with a concert in Dusseldorf despite warnings that German prosecutors were considering legal action over the show's content.
Prosecutors said they were to monitor the performance after receiving a complaint that the US pop star's act breached German laws against blasphemy.
In one scene Madonna is seen in a mock crucifixion, wearing a crown of thorns.
A German Lutheran bishop has called for concert-goers to boycott all dates on the German leg of Madonna's tour.
Madonna says the performance is part of an appeal for Aids charities.
The segment where she appears on a cross has provoked controversy in several countries and been criticised by the Vatican and Russian Orthodox Church.
But the German prosecutors admitted they would rely on media reports of the concert rather than send their own observers to decide whether further action should be taken.
Protestant Bishop Margot Kaesmann told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that concert-goers should boycott the show.
"I thought Madonna was better than this because she claims to be a religious person," she said. "But maybe the only way an aging superstar can attract attention is to offend people's religious sentiments."
"I advise people to ignore Madonna. Stars come and go, but the Christian faith endures," Bishop Kaesmann added.
Madonna's New York-based spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, denied that the star's show was insulting.
"The context of Madonna's performance on the crucifix is not negative nor disrespectful toward the church," she said.
source : bbc

Singles :
-- (29) Madonna - Get Together
Albums :
28 (24) Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor

12 Pictures - Madonna performs in Duesseldorf during "Confessions" World Tour (LTU Arena, Duesseldorf, August 20 2006) - are added to the gallery.
Update : 6 more pictures added

For most women within touching distance of their 50th birthday, one of London's trendiest nightspots would be an unlikely venue to host a party.
Not so for Madonna. She chose the ultra-hip Lounge Lover bar in Shoreditch to celebrate her 48th birthday and the end of the UK leg of her Confessions world tour.
It was a clear sign that the singer is not yet ready to surrender her status as pop's queen of cool.
It would have been difficult for the Material Girl to have picked a more stylish venue. A short walk from Brick Lane, the private function room is filled with Swedish and French furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, while surreal artwork adorns the walls.
She arrived at the party with husband Guy Ritchie following her show at Wembley Arena.
The 12,000 fans - most of whom had paid an eye-watering L160 for their seats - sang Happy Birthday to her while she was on stage.
The singer then thanked them before making a well-thought out birthday request - world peace. She added: "I cannot think of a better way to spend my birthday than with you."
It was a shame then, that she had to rush off for her bash where guests included Gwyneth Paltrow, Jamie Oliver and wife Jools, former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, artist Tracey Emin and actor Kevin Spacey.
Madonna jets off to Germany for the next leg of her tour, but may find herself falling foul of the authorities.
A scene during her show where she is hoisted up on a crucifix has sparked outrage among religious leaders. Madonna's representatives insist it is not disrespectful to the Church.
Source : This Is London

Madonna got a birthday surprise last night when she was sung to by 12,000 people.
Madge, celebrating her 48th, was stopped half way through her show at London's Wembley Arena by her backing singers who urged the audience to join in a round of Happy Birthday.
She then thanked everyone present, saying: "I cannot think of a better way to spend my birthday than with you tonight."
After the show Madonna celebrated again with a select group of friends and Guy Ritchie in trendy Shoreditch.
Source : Entertainment Wise

Guy Ritchie has begged Madonna to tighten security after threats from Russian gangsters to kidnap her and their two kids.
The Queen Of Pop is being targeted by ruthless heavies who don't want her controversial Confessions Tour to go ahead in Moscow next month.
A series of sinister warnings that Madge, son Rocco and daughter Lourdes could be snatched have been sent direct to her management in a bid to stop her performing.
But Madge is determined not to let a security scare get the better of her despite hubby Guy and her tour manager CHRIS LAMB's grave concerns. A source said: "Madonna is well aware of the kidnap threats but she is brave and even a little nonchalant when it comes to her own safety.
"Guy is seriously concerned and has made it clear that security has to be tightened, just to be on the safe side.
"Madonna doesn't anticipate any problems herself but Guy isn't convinced.
"Her tour director, Chris, has been on edge after being informed about the threats. He has made changes to security to increase the protection around her on tour.
"Madonna has made a firm plea for Guy and security bosses to relax but they are refusing to overlook the problem."
The Crucifixion scene on the Confessions Tour has sparked controversy since Madge started the gigs back in May.
The Roman Catholic Church has slated her for using the scene and the Russian Othordox Church the most common religion in Moscow has reportedly taken a dim view of her show too.
It is not the first time Madonna has received a serious threat to her safety.
She axed three gigs in Israel in 2004 after terrorists threatened to kill her and her kids.
Madonna was terrified by a blitz of poison pen letters at the time and decided to stay in London.
But I'm glad Madonna is determined to play in Russia.
She has never performed there before and her fans in Moscow shouldn't miss out because of a few headcases.
source : the sun

Paris Hilton takes a copy of Madonna's 1990 album The Immaculate Collection wherever she goes, but she always loses the record when she's on the road. The hotel heiress has to keep buying new copies of the greatest hits CD because she can never remember where she put it. She says, "I'm so mad about The Immaculate Collection by Madonna that I must've bought it about 10 times over. "I love it so much that I take a copy everywhere I go, but I keep losing it, so I have to go out and buy another one."
source : contact music

10 Pictures - Madonna and Guy leaving Madonna's Birthday Party in London (August 16 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
13 (10) Madonna - Get Together
40 (29) Madonna - Sorry
44 (33) Madonna - Hung Up

Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
49 (43) Madonna - Get Together

Dance Radio Airplay :
11 (07) Madonna - Get Together

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
03 (03) Madonna - Get Together
06 (06) Madonna - Sorry
07 (07) Madonna - Hung Up

Top Music Video :
22 (21) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos
22 (21) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

A German Catholic spokesperson criticised popular singer Madonna on Monday over the crucifixion scene in her current stage act, saying he regretted it was not possible to ban it under German law.
Manfred Becker-Huberti, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Cologne, said: "If someone had tried to portray Mohammed this way, there would have been a revolt."
Madonna, 47, is set to perform on Sunday in the German city of Dusseldorf.
There were protests last week in Italy against a scene in which Madonna wears a crown of thorns and is raised on a cross.
Becker-Huberti said, "It's particularly dreadful that Christian symbols can be distorted like this in a Christian nation. But the legal situation is appalling. There is no way to stop such blasphemy."
Source : News24

Thanks to Sara

Madonna nearly cancelled one of her performances in London last week because builders working on houses either side of her residence in the capital are stopping her from sleeping.
The usually sprightly pop queen surprised fans at one of her Confessions tour shows at Wembley Arena when she sat down to rest, and told of her fatigue.
She said, "I only got three hours sleep last night because I have got construction work going on in stereo at my house.
"This morning I was so tired I thought: 'F**k, I can't do my show.' But I'm getting lots of energy from the smiles on your faces."
The site manager for one of the construction firms says, 'Usually we work from 8.30am, but we agreed to be quiet before 10am so Madonna could get her lie-in.
"We have a job to do. I am surprised she has decided to complain."
Source : Yahoo

18 More Pictures - Madonna going to pilates class / Madonna and Guy in London (August 11 2006) - are added to the gallery.

All 30,000 tickets for Madonna's debut show in Moscow sold out in four days, a record for Russian rock concerts, according to the company that organized the show.
For her Prague concert, the same company sold all 36,000 tickets a bit quicker -- in nine minutes.
The disparity was a result of the old technology used to sell tickets in Russia, said Serge Grimaux, founder of Czech company Ticketpro, which distributed tickets for both concerts. He promised to close the gap by the end of the year and bring the latest technology, a move that could revolutionize the local market.
Ticketpro sold its tickets though local partner 19-00.ru, with most delivered to sales points or directly to consumers by couriers, who collect payment from those who file requests by phone on online. In Prague, tickets payment is taken directly over the phone, on the Internet or in shops with direct links to a centralized computer system.
"Currently, there is a lot of human processing in Russia, which slows the process down," he said.
19-00.ru president Ildar Bakeyev said the Madonna sales marked a record for the Russian market in terms of speed and the value of tickets sold, although neither Ticketpro nor 19-00.ru would say how much all sales were worth.
Bakeyev said the fastest concert his company had previously sold out was Ramstein, which sold out in 20 days. He said the landmark Paul McCartney concert on Red Square in 2003 took about four weeks to sell out.
If Russia had 300 outlets linked to a central server, plus proper Internet sales, there is no doubt that tickets would sell out as fast as they do in other markets, Grimaux said. "Within a year, we will be able to do this."
The vast majority of Internet and phone ticket sales in Russia today merely register bookings for couriers who deliver the tickets and collect the payment. Other tickets are printed and then resold to ticket offices for resale.
The technological and legal problems that have prevented direct ticket sales in Russia have been overcome, but credit card penetration remains an issue, Grimaux said.
Experience in other markets has shown that one major concert can prove the tipping point for credit card sales, Grimaux said. In Greece, a Rolling Stones concert led to average credit card sales surging from about 5 percent to 30 percent. In Russia, 3 percent to 4 percent of pop concert tickets are booked -- but not paid for -- via the Internet
Grimaux said he would try to avoid direct conflict with established local players in Ticketpro's move into the Russian market.
"To make strategic alliances with already established people and bring them my international network, technology and expertise is something I would much prefer to get into instead of getting into fierce competition," he said. "I'm a believer in peace."
Source : Moscow Times

Madonna and Guy Ritchie hold on tight in a crowd of onlookers after taking son Rocco ice-skating for his sixth birthday.
The mega-rich couple opted to pop along to the Queens Ice and Bowl in Bayswater, West London.
Madonna, 47, broke off from her controversial Confessions world tour for Rocco's big day.
But the superstar sparked Catholic outrage for the second time in a week after a giant poster of her was pasted on an Italian cathedral. Last week the Vatican slammed the star for "blasphemy and profanity" in her Rome show when she was suspended from a crucifix.
Now churchmen have protested after the 60ft advert for clothing chain H&M was used to cover scaffolding at the Milan Duomo.
Although she is fully clothed in the poster, officials say Madonna is not an appropriate person to appear on their building.
Source : Sunday Mirror

Singles :
29 (16) Madonna - Get Together

Albums :
24 (28) Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor

12 Pictures - Madonna and Guy in London (August 11 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Tickets to Madonna's concert in Moscow have been sold out a month before the scheduled concert in Moscow, PR manager of the US singer in Russia Anton Atrashkin told Tass.
A total of 34,000 people will be present at the Confessions show that will be held in Vorobyovy Hills in Moscow on September 11.
Thousands of tickets to the show were booked by the singer's Fan Club on the Internet, so that people from many countries will arrive in Moscow to enjoy Madonna's show. Most of the singers' foreign fans are from the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.
Russia will watch the show of the US pop star after the Czech Republic, where Madonna will perform on September 6.
Source : Itar Tass

3 Pictures - Madonna going to pilates class in London (August 11 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Hot 200 Albums :
-- (174) Madonna - Confessions On A Dancefloor

Billboard Comprehensive Albums :
-- (199) Madonna - Confessions On A Dancefloor

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
10 (08) Madonna - Get Together
29 (22) Madonna - Sorry
33 (35) Madonna - Hung Up

Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
43 (36) Madonna - Get Together

Dance Radio Airplay :
07 (02) Madonna - Get Together

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
03 (02) Madonna - Get Together
06 (04) Madonna - Sorry
07 (08) Madonna - Hung Up

Top Music Video :
21 (11) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos
21 (11) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

8 Pictures - Madonna going to pilates class in London (August 08 2006) - are added to the gallery.

38 Pictures - Madonna performs in Cardiff during "Confessions" World Tour (Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, July 30 2006) - are added to the gallery.
Pictures by Vicky Wragg

3 Pictures - Madonna and Guy Ritchie arrive at Madonna's Confessions Tour After Party at the Villa Fendi in Rome (August 07 2006) - are added to the gallery.

A couple celebrating their wedding were unexpectedly joined by pop icon Madonna at their reception.
Neil and Imogen McCarthy from Cardiff, had flown to Rome with 70 guests to get married and were holding their reception at a five-star hotel.
The singer, who was performing in Rome, was in the hotel with husband Guy Ritchie. When she spotted the reception, she joined them for a chat.
The DJ played Madonna's single Hung Up which apparently failed to amuse her.
Madonna played Rome earlier this week as part of her Confessions tour, where she staged a mock-crucifixion which had been condemned by religious leaders.
As she dined with her husband at the city's Hotel De Russie, she was spotted by wedding DJ Valeria De Luca who promptly played one of her hit singles.
Luca Lacovello, who helped organise the party, said guests had recognised Madonna but thought it impolite to draw attention to her.
But when the star discovered that a British wedding party was on the hotel's terrace, she went out to join them.
"When Madonna walked into the reception with her husband everybody recognised them," Luca Lacovello said.
"The DJ put on one of her records, Hung Up, which she wasn't happy about but all the party at the wedding behaved with typical British reserve.
"If it had been an Italian wedding and Madonna walked in there would have been mass hysteria, but no-one raised an eyelid although everyone knew she was there.
"Madonna and Guy had their dinner and the wedding party continued and at the end Madonna walked up and congratulated the couple and wished them luck for their wedding.
"It was completely unexpected and was an added bonus for their wedding day."
The McCarthys, who are currently on their honeymoon, were unavailable for comment.
Jason Harding, general manager at St David's Hotel in Cardiff, where Mrs McCarthy works, said: "I can confirm Imogen is a member of staff and got married in Rome at the weekend.
"This is the first I have heard about this - we shall have to ask her all about it when she gets back."
A spokeswoman at the Hotel De Russie in Rome said: "I can confirm that Madonna and her husband had dinner at our terrace restaurant.
"I can also confirm that at the same time there was a wedding reception taking place with a British bride and groom, but I cannot say anything else.
"I have to respect the privacy of our clients both famous and not famous."

Thanks to Rinaldo

About 300 Madonna fans gathered in central Moscow in the small hours of Tuesday to buy tickets for the pop diva's concert on September 11.
The first fan appeared on Monday afternoon and by 7 p.m. (3p.m. GMT) people had started signing up to a long list for their chance to make it to the ticket office, Kazinform quotes RIA Novosti.
About 2,000 cheapest tickets will be sold for the dance floor Tuesday for 1,500 rubles ($56), well under the European-low of $90, said Mikhail Shurygin, president of St. Petersburg's concert agency NCA organizing the concert.
The other 40,000 tickets for the show, part of the controversial Confessions tour, fall into six price categories, from 3,000 rubles ($110) to 25,000 rubles ($935).
Organizers of Madonna's tour in Prague, where the pop icon will perform on September 6, said the 36,000 tickets sold out in nine minutes.
Shurygin said that free tickets would be provided for disabled people, but the singer's management would set the number available.
A total of 200 metric tons of Madonna's stage equipment will arrive in Moscow in 57 trucks. The singer will be accompanied by a staff of 200 and will perform onstage with a team of 27 people.
Shurygin said, "The newest security equipment from Europe will be used during Madonna's show in Moscow." He added that the stage, which will be set up in front of the huge Moscow University building on a hill overlooking the capital, would be protected with police cordon and a fence.
source : Inform.kz

9 Pictures - Madonna and Guy Ritchie leaving St. Regis Hotel in Rome (August 07 2006) - are added to the gallery.

39 Pictures - Madonna performs in Rome during "Confessions" World Tour (Olympic Stadium, Rome, August 06 2006) - are added to the gallery.

3 Pictures - Madonna and Guy Ritchie leaving St. Regis Hotel in Rome (August 07 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna insists she meant no disrespect to the Catholic Church by beginning her concert near the Vatican on Sunday night by rising to the stage on a mirrored cross, wearing a crown of thorns.
It wasn't the only religious symbolism of the performance.
Two dancers with a Star of David and a Muslim crescent painted on their torsos embraced and held hands during their routine.
Religious leaders snubbed the "Confessions Tour" concert, but fans seemed thrilled and wildly cheered the pop diva's entrance.
One fan wearing a T-shirt with an image of Madonna on the cross said that if authorities allow the stage show, they must also play by her rules.
source : reuters

7 Pictures - Madonna performs in Rome during "Confessions" World Tour (Olympic Stadium, Rome, August 06 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna staged a mock crucifixion in the Italian capital on Sunday, ignoring a storm of protest and accusations of blasphemy from the Roman Catholic Church.
In a sold-out stadium a mile from Vatican City, the lapsed-Catholic diva wore a fake crown of thorns as she was raised on a glittery cross during the Rome stop of her worldwide Confessions Tour.
The singer performed the song Forbidden Love between two dancers, with the Star of David and the crescent moon, a symbol of Islam, painted on their bodies in a clear message to the escalating conflict.
Then, in a sold-out stadium not far from Vatican City, the lapsed-Catholic diva wore a fake crown of thorns as she was raised on a glittery cross.
The Vatican had accused her of blasphemy and provocation for even considering staging the sham crucifixion on its doorstep, anger Madonna further enflamed prior to the show by inviting Pope Benedict to come and watch.
The self-styled Queen of Pop went on to pepper her two-and-a-half hour show with more controversial imagery, at one point showing photographs of the Pope after those of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
"Did you know two miracles have taken place in Rome?" the star, dressed in skin skimming black, later joked with the crowd. "Italy won the World Cup and the rain stopped before my show."
The 70,000 fans, crammed into the Olympic Stadium, shrugged off the scandal, by dancing, singing and jumping as she performed songs from her latest album Confessions on a Dance Floor and classics, such as Like a Virgin.
Yet, the cheering lulled when she was raised on the cross and some fans from predominantly Roman Catholic Italy confessed their disappointment.
"The crucifixion was unnecessary and provocative. Because this is Rome, I wish she'd cut it out. But it's Madonna, she's an icon, and that balances out her need to provoke," said 39-year old Roman, Tonia Valerio.
It is not the first time Madonna, whose father is a Catholic Italian American, has caused religious anger for her controversial religious and sexual imagery.
Catholic leaders condemned as blasphemous her 1989 video for hit song Like a Prayer, featuring burning crosses, statues crying blood and Madonna seducing a black Jesus.
In 2004, a Vatican group warned that her latest religious belief Kabbalah, a mystical from of Judaism, was a potential threat to the Roman Catholic faithful.
And she looks likely to face another storm when the tour reaches Moscow in September, where the Russian Orthodox Church has advised its followers to boycott the show because of the crucifixion stunt, agency Interfax reported on Saturday.
source : reuters

Thanks to MichaelJinNYC

24 Pictures - Madonna performs in Rome during "Confessions" World Tour (Olympic Stadium, Rome, August 06 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Desperately seeking Madonna. Hundreds of Italians have gathered in front of her hotel and rushed to Rome's most chic street in hopes of getting a glimpse of the American pop star, who is to perform in a concert Sunday night at the Olympic stadium.
Fans started pouring in to the stadium since early afternoon, while some had camped out to get a spot right in front of the stage. Some 70,000 people were expected at the concert, which is the only Italian date of her "Confessions" tour.
A few hundred people also have gathered in front of Madonna's hotel in downtown Rome since Saturday. A rumor that she was shopping on Via Condotti, Rome's fashion street, sent hundreds of fans there, newspaper Il Messaggero and other dailies reported Sunday.
The concert has drawn criticism in Roman Catholic Italy, especially for Madonna's plans to appear crucified on a mirrored cross while wearing a crown of thorns.
Religious leaders have condemned the mock crucifixion as an act of hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church and as a publicity stunt in bad taste.
But Madonna's New York-based spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, said in an e-mail that "the context of Madonna's performance on the crucifix is not negative nor disrespectful toward the church."
source : ap

Singles :
16 (07) Madonna - Get Together
Albums :
28 (33) Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor

5 Pictures - Madonna arrives to St. Regis hotel in Rome (August 05 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Russia's Orthodox Church accused US superstar Madonna of exploiting Christian symbols for her own ends and called for a boycott of her first-ever concert in Moscow.
"The US singer Madonna exploits Christian symbols -- the cross, rosary beads and the crucifix -- and tries to equate human passions, including her own personal passions, with something sacred," the spokesman for the patriarch of Moscow said.
"I don't think that Orthodox believers should support this lady by going to her concert," father Vsevolod Chaplin said on Echo of Moscow radio station.
She "needs spiritual help because she swings between Christianity and Kabbalah," he said, referring to a branch of Jewish mysticism that the singer follows.
Madonna will perform in Russia for the first time on September 11 as part of her "Confessions" world tour. The concert will take place on a specially constructed stage on Sparrow Hills overlooking the city centre, close to Moscow State University.
The pop diva will arrive in the Russian capital with 57 trucks and 200 tonnes of equipment in tow, the organisers said. Tickets cost between 1,500 rubles (55 dollars, 45 euros) and a hefty 25,000 rubles (930 dollars, 730 euros).
Madonna kicked off the European leg of her world tour in the Welsh city of Cardiff on July 30 where she gyrated on a saddle floating above the stage and sang from a crucifix in a performance involving provocative dance routines.
She has often sparked outrage among religious leaders with raunchy video clips, notably when she kissed a black Christ in front of a burning cross in her 1989 hit "Like a Prayer".
source : afp

10 Pictures - Madonna going to pilates class in London (August 04 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Liz Rosenberg, mouthpiece for the ecumenical hate object, tells us: "I think the Pope would enjoy the show and would applaud her performance. He has an open invitation to see for himself the eloquence and beauty that Madonna expresses for humanity while performing her poignant song 'Live to Tell.'"
source : nydailynews

The Vatican accused Madonna of "blasphemy and profanity" yesterday - and even suggested that she should be excommunicated over a scene in her current Confessions Tour.
The so-called Queen of Pop brings her show to Rome on Sunday, and Roman Catholic leaders are furious at part of her performance in which she wears a crown of thorns and is apparently crucified.
Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the Pope's approval, said: "This is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the Cross. She should be excommunicated. To crucify herself "¦ in the city of popes and martyrs is an act of open hostility. It is nothing short of a scandal and an attempt to generate publicity."
Another Vatican official, Bishop Velasio De Paolis, said: "How this woman can take the name of the mother of Christ, I don't know. Her show represents the rotten fruit of secularism and the absurdity of evil."
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair, Madonna said a bad riding accident last year had brought her closer to God. "It made me look at life in a new way "¦ I promised God: 'I am never going to complain, moan or grumble or be ungrateful again'. "
source : telegraph

Malawi, a Pennsylvania-sized country in southeast Africa, has four things in abundance: AIDS, malaria, drought and tobacco (its major crop). It also has a functioning democracy and little conflict. To date, therefore, it has not attracted much attention from the rest of the world. But that's about to change. Malawi is about to be hit by a force that has thrown much more robust countries for a loop. Her name is Madonna.
And being Madonna, she's not arriving in Malawi by halves. She has already committed to raising at least $3 million to fund programs particularly aimed at orphans there. Of Malawi's population of 12 million, about a million are orphans. Ground has just been broken on an orphan care center, which aims to feed and educate as many as 1,000 children a day. She has also formed a partnership with developing-world economic guru Jeffrey Sachs on programs to improve the health, agriculture and economy of a village nearby. She's financingto the tune of about $1 milliona documentary about the plight of children there. And she has met with Bill Clinton to see if they can work together to bring low-cost medicines to the area, as well as partnering with several aid organizations. This, mind you, is all before Madonna has ever even set foot in Africa. (She plans to go in October.)
"For the last few yearsnow that I have children and now that I have what I consider to be a better perspective on lifeI have felt responsible for the children of the world," says Madonna, taking a break between London concert dates . "I've been doing bits and bobs about it and I suppose I was looking for a big, big project I could sink my teeth into." The "better perspective" she attributes to Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism. Her co-founder in the Raising Malawi project is Michael Berg, founder of the Kabbalah center in Los Angeles and one of the driving forces behind its growing popularity. And although it has no religious affiliation, the orphan-care centerwhich will be like a day camp for orphans, who often have relatives who will give them a place to sleep but cannot feed themwill offer programs based on Spirituality for Kids, Kabbalah's children's program. "One of the main precepts of Kabbalah is that we're put on this earth to help people," says Madonna. "And your job is to figure out how you can help, and what it is that you can do."
Madonna is the latest in a line of major stars who have been trying to cast some of their limelight onto the situation in Africa. Sachs, who Madonna called after she read his book The End of Poverty, has already worked closely with Bono and Angelina Jolie, among others. He knows people are cynical about celebrities' philanthropic efforts, but having met with Madonna (they had lunch and then he went to his first-ever Madonna concert), he's not. "Of course there are no doubt people who on a fling say something, but that's not what Madonna's doing, it's not what Angelina's doing, it's not what Bono's doing," he says. "In the very noisy and complicated world that we have, people that reach large numbers of people, like Madonna does, have an extraordinarily important role to play. When they're devoting their time, their money, their name, a lot of effort, a lot of organization skill to all of this, it makes a huge difference. The cynics are just wrong. They don't get it."

Rome's Catholic, Muslim and Jewish leaders have united to condemn pop star Madonna's decision to stage a mock-crucifixion when she performs in the Italian capital on Sunday a stone's throw away from Vatican City.
The lapsed-Catholic diva's latest irreverent performance sees her wearing a fake crown of thorns and descending on a suspended, glittery cross as part of her worldwide "Confessions Tour."
Having already been criticized in the United States, Catholics priests from across the Eternal City have gone one further saying the act "comes close to blasphemy."
"It is disrespectful, in bad taste and provocative," Father Manfredo Leone from Rome's Santa Maria Liberatrice church said late on Wednesday about the star's latest stage stunt.
"Being raised on a cross with a crown of thorns like a modern Christ is absurd. Doing it in the cradle of Christianity comes close to blasphemy."
In an unusual show of religious solidarity, Muslim and Jewish leaders added their condemnation of the self-styled Queen of Pop, famous for peppering her concerts and videos with controversial religious and sexual imagery.
"I think her idea is in the worst taste and she'd do better to go home," Mario Scialoja, head of Italy's Muslim League said.
Riccardo Pacifici, spokesman and vice president of the Roman Jewish community, added Madonna should have pulled the routine considering where she was performing -- a stadium a mile from the gates of Vatican City.
It is not the first time Madonna, who has a Catholic Italian-American father, has raised the ire of the Catholic Church.
Catholic leaders condemned as blasphemous her controversial 1989 video for hit song "Like a Prayer," featuring burning crosses, statues crying blood and Madonna seducing a black Jesus.
In 2004, a Vatican group warned that her latest religious belief "Kabbalah," a mystical form of Judaism, was a potential threat to the Roman Catholic faithful.
Madonna, 47, has refused to kowtow to Italy's Catholic sensibilities, but in an interview published on Thursday she had nothing but praise for her Italian background.
She told Italy's edition of Vanity Fair her "good Italian genes" were the reason for her staying in shape, famously allowing her to writhe in a leotard in a recent video.
source : reuters

Madonna gave former Blue star Duncan James a shock during her Confessions show in London on Tuesday - because she singled him out for not dancing.
James insists he was enjoying the show, but he found her dazzling onstage presence so hypnotic he just stood there gaping.
He says, "I couldn't believe she was pointing at me! I was so embarrassed.
"I'd never seen Madonna live before and I was mesmerised by her amazing body and performance.
"It was exactly at that point, when she was dancing right in front of me, that I couldn't do anything but stare because she looks so incredible. That's why I wasn't dancing."
source : pr-inside

Madonna's Confessions Tour which has already been seen by well over half a million US fans and received critical raves around the world is headed to Russia's Vorobievy Gory in Moscow on September 11th. A long time dream come true for one of the most successful artists and cultural innovators of our time, this appearance marks The Material GIrl's concert debut in Russia.
The September 11th performance follows the opening of the European leg of her tour in Cardiff on July 30th, eight sold out shows in London's Wembley Arena and additional stops in Germany, Denmark, France, Holland and the Czech Republic.
"A spectacle of epic proportions. The best Madonna tour since Blonde Ambition" raved the UK's Attitude Magazine after seeing Madonna's most recent spectacle. "Still at her controversial best. Yes, Madonna IS the queen of pop" echoed London's The Sun newspaper.
The multi-Grammy award winning artist has made musical history many times over. In the UK alone, Madonna is the most successful female artist in UK Chart history with a staggering 60 Top Ten singles and 9 Number 1 albums. A video visionary and children's book author, Madonna has an unrivaled reputation for astonishing stage spectacles. Her current CD "Confessions on a Dance Floor" debuted at No. 1 in 29 countries and she has sold over 200 million albums.
The Moscow performance is sponsored by H&M and Beeline. Alexander Izosimov, CEO of VImpelCom (Beeline Trademark) commented, "This show is the beginning of Beeline's long-term music projects with further details to be announced shortly. The vision of our company is to provide our clients with the best. Madonna is the brightest light in the music world. We admire her work, her many talents and her ability to continue to create new and exciting music. She is No. 1 on the world stage. We are happy that the dream of Russians to see the star live on stage is coming true."
The Confessions Tour, directed by Jamie King, features long time Madonna collaborator and coproducer Stuart Price as Musical Director. The show's costumes are created by fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier and Arianne Phillips. The unique stage which includes three runways that stretch out into the audience for Madonna and her troupe of stunning dancers also includes state of the art sound and video screens and a moving turntable stage.
Madonna tickets for the September 11th performance at Vorobievy Gory will go on sale Friday, August 4th at TicketPro, www.ticketpro.ru and 648-6161.
Madonna Confession Tour is produced and promoted by The Next Adventure (A Live Nation Company) in association with CEE and NCA.
source : ticketpro

Jessica Simpson has confessed her latest single was accidentally influenced by pop superstar Madonna's Holiday.
After posting A Public Affair on her website in June, Simpson has received a barrage of criticism claiming the song is too close to Madonna's 1984 hit.
But Simpson retorts that's exactly what her fans need and is refusing to apologise for the retro sound.
source : irishexaminer

Hot 200 Albums :
174 (145) Madonna - Confessions On A Dancefloor

Billboard Comprehensive Albums :
199 (162) Madonna - Confessions On A Dancefloor

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
08 (08) Madonna - Get Together
22 (22) Madonna - Sorry
35 (28) Madonna - Hung Up

Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
36 (25) Madonna - Get Together

Dance Radio Airplay :
02 (03) Madonna - Get Together

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
02 (03) Madonna - Get Together
04 (05) Madonna - Sorry
08 (06) Madonna - Hung Up

Top Music Video :
11 (08) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos
11 (08) Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

Pop superstar Madonna, who celebrates her 48th birthday on August 18, has claimed her enduring beauty is down to her Italian roots .
When asked by Vanity Fair how come she still looks so great, Madonna replied: "I take care of myself, I don't abuse my energy and fortunately, I have good Italian genes" .
The family of the American singer's father, Silvio "Tony" P. Ciccone, come from the central Italian region of Abruzzo .
Madonna gave the interview to the Italian edition of the magazine ahead of next Sunday's massive concert at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
The gig is the only one on the Confessions Tour that she will play in Italy .
She also told Vanity Fair that the horse-riding accident she had last year, in which she broke her hand, collarbone and fractured three ribs, has given her a new outlook on life .
"While I was lying in bed (convalescing after the fall), I promised God that I wouldn't get depressed for no reason any more, I wouldn't be ungrateful or moan .
"I've tried to keep the promise, although I did before the accident too. "But what has changed is that I have a new sense of awareness and gratitude for the possibilities I have to do what I do and for this energy I have" .
As well as being proud of her Italian roots, Madonna is also a fan of the country's fashion .
Dolce & Gabbana have been working with the singer for 14 years and they designed several of the costumes she wears during the Confessions set .
Stefano Gabbana told another Italian magazine, Grazia, that making clothes for the star can be a stressful experience .
"She made us crazy with the costumes she and the dancers wore for the song Holiday while on tour in 1992," he said .
"First she wanted blue outfits, then she wanted them to be red. After she wanted them shortened and then lengthened again .
"In the end she drove me to despair and I told her to 'go to hell'. I said it in Italian, but she understood perfectly". Another favourite designer, Donatella Versace, painted a different picture of Madonna, describing how the star helped her get over her brother Gianni's death .
"She was the first person to phone me and when I arrived in Miami (where Gianni Versace was murdered), she was there waiting for me" .
Grazia also reported on some of Madonna's demands for her hotel room during her stay in Rome .
One of these is that a brand new lavatory be installed in her bathroom .
source : ansa.it

9 Pictures - Madonna going to pilates class in London (August 02 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Eventim.de has released more tickets for Hanover and Duesseldorf dates.
Thanks to Chris Meyer